Teachers learn sailing from master
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Staff Writer
HILO, Hawai'i — Sixty high school science teachers from around the country will take a lesson in sailing by the stars from master navigator Mau Piailug this morning.
Advertiser library photo •1997
The lesson will follow lectures by astronomers from observatories atop Mauna Kea.
At 70, navigator Mau Piailug says his sun is setting.
Both events are part of a weeklong "ASTRO-Vaganza" that combines ancient navigational star lore with the most recent astronomical discoveries and theories.
Teachers from Hawai'i and across the nation are divided into four "crews" that are touring Mauna Kea observatories, taking classes in astronomy, receiving orientation in canoe voyaging, and making sunrise sails to observe stars used for navigation.
Dr. Alice Kawakami, chairwoman of the education department at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and co-chairwoman of ASTRO-Vaganza, said the event was oversubscribed after Piailug agreed to participate.
He came to Hawai'i from Micronesia for medical treatment and is a guest of Na Kalai Wa'a, the voyaging society that built and sails Makali'i, a double-hulled canoe.
The seven-day event began Sunday with an emotional tribute to Piailug, who landed from the Makali'i at the dock of the Naniloa Hotel. Piailug had asked that his entire canoe "family" be present.
As the pivotal person who retaught Hawaiians their ancient art of noninstrument navigation, Piailug comes from a family that includes voyagers and navigators from all over the Pacific who have built canoes. He took Hokule'a to Tahiti in 1976, marking the first trans-Pacific voyage by Polynesian canoe in modern times.
In a speech composed by Piailug and read by Makali'i captain Chad Paishon, the 70-year-old master navigator said that he feels that his sun is setting and that younger generations must now carry on. His admission of age brought tears to his family.
At his request, his first two students, Nainoa Thompson of O'ahu and Shorty Bertelmann of Hawai'i, sat on either side of him during the hourlong 'awa ceremony.
More than 50 voyagers who have sailed with Piailug in the Hokule'a, Hawai'iloa and Makali'i gathered for the ceremony and a half- dozen rose to pay him tribute. A group of Maori voyagers from New Zealand attended for the same reason. They performed a haka, or dance, in his honor.
Piailug is called "Papa" by the canoe crews, a term of affection. After the rigidly formal 'awa ceremony, the crew of Makali'i put on another ceremony at which each member brought forward a package of animal crackers and reverently laid it at his feet.
Animal crackers are Piailug's favorite nibble food. By the time the ceremony was over, the pile of packages was 2 feet high.
Piailug's family on Hawai'i plans to build a Hawaiian voyaging canoe to be presented to him in 2004 so that he can teach long-distance voyaging to young people in Micronesia. Smaller Micronesian voyaging canoes do not have the range of Hawaiian double-hulled canoes.
